1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been known a technique of reflecting a print condition on print data described in a language such as a page description language (PDL) and transforming the print data into transformation data transformed into a printable format through a raster image processor (RIP). Further, in the past, there has been developed a method of performing a printing process at a high speed at the time of reprinting using transformation data transformed by the RIP.
For example, there has been disclosed a method of managing a print data entity in association with the content of a past print request so as to efficiently perform printing when a user accumulates print data which has been printed and then the print data accumulated by the user is reprinted or when print data accumulated by another user is printed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-037409).
However, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-037409, it has been difficult to reflect a condition, which has influence on printing, changed from the time of accumulation when an accumulated document is printed. For example, when transformation data of a transmitted job has been an A4 size but a tray has A3 paper only, or has run out of paper during printing, since it has been difficult to change a print condition during printing, it has been difficult to continue printing.
In this regard, there has been disclosed a method of managing a print job as a hold job when an error has occurred due to paper-out, staple-out of a stapler, ink exhaustion, or the like, and the absence of a supply has been detected for the purpose of making it possible to reprint a print job which has not been printed after the error has been resolved (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-288032).
However, even in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-288032, it has been difficult to reflect a change in a condition having influence on printing at the time of retrying a print job in which printing is put on hold. For this reason, when printing has stopped due to an error occurred during printing, the user needed to perform an operation for resolving an error cause such as toner replenishment, and printing has not been difficult to continue automatically. Thus, operability and efficiency have been poor.
Further, there has been already known a forced print technique of designating another tray and forcibly continuing printing when printing has stopped due to an error occurred during printing.
However, in the conventional forced print technique, in order to forcibly print already generated transformation data on a paper being supplied to another tray, for example, when a job of an A3 size transmitted to a printer is printed on an A4 paper, an image gets out of a paper, and an image gets cut off. On the other hand, when a job of an A4 size is printed on an A3 paper, an unnecessary space is left, and thus a print having poor balance is completed. As described above, when printing by the conventional forced print technique is continued, there has been a problem in that visibility of an image is lowered.